Good thing that with just one attempt of persuading Elaine, she managed to read what was running through my bothered mind. I love her more than anyone in the world but I also have an image to safeguard. I cannot afford a single piece of news about me getting leaked to the public. Dylan already has had enough recently. The last thing I wished to happen was to make his head spinning. He was still in the middle of his recovery at the hospital. And I was the one who begged him not to join the formality for both our sakes. The four of us, including Maureen, might not feel comfortable talking and seeing each other in one room. Don't even have the slightest idea about how on earth Maureen appeared in the meeting when as far as I could remember, I never invited her. At least not on my watch. And so was Elaine, I believed. In the middle of our trek back to the main entrance of the restaurant, I begged Elaine to listen to everything I was about to explain regarding her

Mom and Dad exchanged bothered glances for about ten seconds as though they were reading each other's minds while waiting for my response, I, on the other hand, took advantage of the deafening silence to gather my thoughts. Neither of my family must know about what was going on between me and Dylan. Never will be. Ghino and I already told them that everything was fine between us. We'll keep it that way until the very end of this marriage. Until then. So I eagerly announced, "It's tears of joy, Mom and Dad. Our family was gathered here today, of course, apart from Brother Noah because he was too busy with his work." "Speaking of that... What about his boss?" Dad frowned as he helped me change the subject. Perhaps he already noticed the tension that was engraved on my face. "What's his name again?" "Dex Spencer," Mom replied on my behalf. "You're getting old, honey. I told you to drink your vitamins every day. We just talked to that man a few hours ago..." Mo

Dylan suddenly rolled his eyes as though he was avoiding making eye-to-eye contact with me. Instead of my face, he fixed his eyes on the screens above us. "Why aren't you answering, Mr. Spencer?" I added, this time, in a demanding tone. Unfortunately, my furious tone melted after seeing his wounded chest filled with bandages. "By the way, are you sure you can start working now with your condition?" Before saying a word, Dylan slid to the computer keyboard and operated the CCTV footage. He pressed a lot of keys as though he knew what he was doing until the footage stopped at the part when someone sneaked into our office. The balls of my eyes remained dilated when my instinct about Ghino had something to do with the original copies of the company's AFS (Annual Financial Statements). He opened the door of the office with a spare key, which I have no idea where he got one, and slid closer to my desk. Then he checked and scanned those documents one by one. He halted fo

Ghino was put into silence as he fixed his startled eyes on me. Guilty was evidently written all over his face. He knew that he could not deny my claim before we had a piece of substantial evidence to support our accusation. "Don't give me that kind of look, Ghino." I added, "Did you know what I hated the most being in a relationship with you? You're a good liar. You've been lying to me this entire time. I don't have a clue what are you up to, the reason you are doing this to me, or what your intention on marry me. I don't know." "Please, calm down, Elaine." I could not believe all the words that were slipped out of my mouth, that was his response - asking me to get calm. I gritted my teeth in disbelief as I encountered having a hard time breathing in order to let out those fucking words yet he responded to me to calm down. Is he fucking kidding me? "Yes, I took those documents from your desk last night. And I have someone carry them into my office. But that doesn

"We better get going, Mom. People are watching us now. We were already making a commotion." Noah proposed before the scandal went out of hand, but his eyes were still fixed on the man in front of us. Then he pointed a finger at him, "Don't you dare follow us, Dylan. Or else I'm gonna report you to the cops." "Let's get the hell out of this place, Elaine!" Mom reached out to my hand and dragged me out of the building. Dylan and I did not get the chance to speak when I couldn't get back to the room anymore. The last thing I wanted to happen was to make another commotion, putting fuel into the fire, so I let Mom drag me out of the hotel. Five minutes later, the three of us were settled inside the cab dominated by deafening silence. Mom was seated next to me in the backseat while Brother Noah was in the front seat beside the driver. But I knew all their eyes were pointing at me. "We'll go back to the province as soon as possible, Elaine." Mom finally spoke up, breaking